Climbing Over Peaks
by dawnsama
Summary: KouRinInu. PostNaraku. They both lost someone in their lives, and both subconciously searched for someone to fill in that hole in a girl they wouldn't have expected.


Author's Notes: I'm only going by manga canon here, so Kouga and Sesshoumaru never met up with each other in that anime filler episode, and the second movie, with that (spoiler!) kiss, never happened. Also, I'm assuming that Kouga was never aware that his minion wolves killed Rin.

Thank you, Nabob, for beta'ing! 

And finally, this fic is for Purple Uranium (eternaltempress at LJ), who challenged me to do it, so I did. Hope you like it!

Standard Disclaimer: The characters of Inuyasha are not mine… yaddy yadda… flashy lights… Rumiko Takahashi… more lights…

**Climbing Over Peaks**, by dawnsama

_I. The End_

Inuyasha found the so called Final Battle disappointing, which should have puzzled him since he usually felt happy whenever they won a fight. But nonetheless, it was difficult to feel happy about anything when everything he had come to value had broken.

Wearily, Kagome had half-smiled at him, pleased that their task was finally done. It had pleased her so much that no suspicion came to her when the completed Jewel began to shimmer more than usual. By the time either of them realized what was happening, Kagome's face had already started to blur.

Inuyasha had grabbed for her hands, but it was already too late. "Wait for me," Kagome had called to him as her body shimmered and began to fade, tears slipping from her eyes. "Wait…"

And then she was gone, and Inuyasha's world finished shattering, like a delicate crystal jewel completing its fall to the ground. Somewhere in his mind, Inuyasha had the feeling that looking into the well wouldn't put it back together again, for the Jewel had disappeared along with her.

He closed his eyes tightly, and after a moment he opened them again.

What Inuyasha expected to see consisted of corpses and death and hated faces and faces he had become accustomed to. He thought giddily to himself that he would probably open his eyes to a world full of emptiness, with only brittle shells of what he once had for company to greet him.

He did not expect to see a fist on its way to slamming into his chin.

Numbly, his mind registered that a certain wolf youkai, whose face he definitely didn't enjoy looking at, had just punched him. Inuyasha noted with detached amusement that it seemed he had survived the battle as well, and absentmindedly marveled at the wolf's survival skills.

Kouga pulled back his fist and prepared for another punch. "Do you realize what you've done?"

What he'd done?

Well, for starters, he had just lost everyone he had even remotely liked.

"Do you? Do you asshole?"

Inuyasha wanted to ask Kouga to be more specific, he had done many things during the battle; hell, he had _won_. But that probably wasn't what Kouga meant, judging by the shocked glances he sent to the spot where Kagome had stood minutes before. He mumbled, "It wasn't my fault," although he wasn't sure why he said it, because there was a big chance that it, in fact, _was_ all Inuyasha's fault.

Like, maybe, _maybe_, he could have killed that one youkai a little quicker, so that he could have gotten to Kagura sooner, and Miroku wouldn't have had to take the blow meant for Sango and have his body sliced in to chunks, and his blood and tattered robes wouldn't have splattered onto Sango as she watched him fall apart. He hadn't died by the Kazaana's jaws, but maybe if Inuyasha had been quicker, Naraku wouldn't have somehow wormed his way into Miroku's death.

"Bring her back! Bring Kagome back to me!" Kouga yelled, voice cracking as he continued to swipe at him.

Inuyasha considered informing him that Kagome's disappearance wasn't his fault, not _really,_ but instead, Inuyasha ducked from Kouga's punch and sidestepped a kick.

"I truly have no one now," the wolf spat bitterly. "It doesn't matter that Naraku is dead, if only scum like you are around. Even my two clansmen are gone now because of _you_."

Clansmen? Sango barely had any time to even stare at Miroku's body parts before Kohaku appeared in front of her with gleaming blades. Both had swords thrust into vulnerable areas of the body, bloody hands touching bloody clothes and blood dribbling down chins when Inuyasha had reached them. Maybe Kirara could have done something, Inuyasha did not recall seeing her dead body. Although, he had seen something looking very much like her tail, lying on the ground, detached from a body, so maybe not.

"If you had just been a little more careful," Kouga continued, barging at him, "this all wouldn't have happened, and Kagome would still be here."

He wanted to scoff at Kouga's ignorance. How could he have been more careful? At least this was one thing that didn't have any _maybe's_. Inuyasha leaned forward, narrowly missing a swipe at his face, and grabbed an incoming fist.

"Putting the blame on me isn't going to make things better," Inuyasha snarled. "How was I supposed to know that the Jewel would send her back?"

"You could have guessed!"

He hadn't guessed that Shippou would never get out of childhood, that he would never grow up, and that the last he would see of the child would be of sizzling and burning flesh.

"So you'd be happier if we _hadn't_ completed the Jewel?"

Inuyasha wanted Kouga to say yes, yes he did wish they hadn't finished their task, because then they wouldn't have had to sacrifice Kouga's companions. Then Inuyasha would scoff and remind him that their sacrifice had been for the greater good. He would inform him that he wasn't the only one who lost, he was being a selfish bastard. Kouga had been _right there, _witnessed the whole damn thing. For hadn't Kikyou and Kagome compromised one final time and shot burning, blinding arrows at once into Naraku's writhing body of tentacles? Hadn't Naraku held onto his life long enough to whip out a tentacle steaming with miasma at them? Hadn't Inuyasha jumped forward, on time for once, and yanked Kagome out of reach? Hadn't Kouga seen the way Kikyou's clay body hissed at the miasma's touch, disintegrating, almost melting her skin off her flesh as it began to rupture and twitch even after Naraku's tentacle gave out and collapsed on her face?

And just moments after Inuyasha had lost his first love, in fact Kikyou's body was still in the process of disintegrating, Kagome had raised quivering hands and pieced together the Shikon no Tama. The wish she made was a selfless wish, but, now that Inuyasha thought about it, a useless one. But he hadn't stopped Kagome when she wished for the departing souls of the battle victims to find peace because, surrounded by the odor of blood and death, what else could Kagome wish for? And apparently the wish was enough to wink the jewel out of existence.

Too bad it took Kagome with it.

So Inuyasha felt giddily eager to hear Kouga's answer to his question. He glared, daring Kouga to say yes, so than Inuyasha wouldn't be the only one in the world wondering if he had done the right thing.

Kouga matched his glare with a pinch of malice. "No!" he snarled. "Think I'm that much of an idiot?"

Narrowing his eyes, Inuyasha's grip tightened on Kouga's fist. He moved his head until his fangs were just inches away from Kouga's face. "Then shut up," he hissed.

Inuyasha gave a particularly vicious shove at this. "I don't have anyone either," he murmured. "I don't have anyone to… protect."

Spluttering, Kouga tried his other hand and growled when Inuyasha caught the fist. "_You _have no one to _protect_? _Protect?_"

"No." And Inuyasha thought about slamming to the ground at a single word and legs around his waist and hands clasping his shoulders, and leaning against a wall as those around him fell asleep, and watching arrows of blinding power swish past. He didn't want to admit that these things only existed in his head, gone from the real world, and wished that he was too numb to feel.

"Neither do you," Inuyasha added in a whisper, remembering the way Kouga had always looked at Kagome, and he suddenly didn't feel like fighting anymore. With a push, Kouga went sprawling to the ground.

"You take what little I still had away from me and then you push me over." Kouga wiped the dirt off his face, eyes gleaming. "I still don't understand why she stayed with you."

"It wasn't my fault," Inuyasha said again, wishing that repetition would make it true.

Kouga leapt to his feet, cracking his knuckles, and Inuyasha, wondering if a fight, a real fight, not the tussle they'd had for the past few minutes, would numb him after all, raised his arms in response.

"Sesshou…"

It was soft and high-pitched, but the voice cracked along the edges and corners, reminding Inuyasha of the way his fingers had scraped along the image of Kagome before she was taken completely away. Maybe Kouga felt it too, for they both paused and turned to look across the bloody expanse,

"…maru…"

Inuyasha dropped his arms and stared at the girl kneeling next an armored body lying on the ground, unmoving.

Could it be?

Ignoring Kouga, Inuyasha ran to the girl and stared at his brother's corpse. He supposed that he should be shocked that his powerful half-brother was dead, that it was possible for him to be killed. But his shock was only muted, and Inuyasha could only shake his head in disappointment that Sesshoumaru would let himself leave the world with his legs strewn apart, lying a few feet away, his fake arm dripping by his hair, and his head almost severed from his neck but for a bit of flesh and skin.

The girl who used to follow his brother clenched his armor, hands shaking. Inuyasha didn't hear any sniffles or gasps of crying, nor did he smell the salt of tears, but as she slumped down beside his brother's corpse and lifted a hand to press the head back onto the neck, Inuyasha almost wished that she was crying instead.

She turned her head and stared at his feet, eyes not moving off the ground. Inuyasha looked down with her and didn't see anything special about his gritty, dirty toes. It didn't matter though, because she was looking up at his face now.

"Jaken-sama told me that it was impossible for Sesshoumaru-sama to die," Rin told him in a simple-like tone, as if it were matter-a-fact, as if Inuyasha were a consoling person who would sympathize with her. "But look at him."

"I see," Inuyasha replied, not knowing what to say, and not knowing why he said anything at all.

"He's dead," Rin continued to the spot beside him.

Inuyasha turned his head and saw Kouga standing next to him, but for some reason, Inuyasha didn't care that he hadn't noticed Kouga's approach and that he felt too numb to feel the malice he had attached to Kouga's face, too numb to do more than stare blankly for a moment and then turn away.

"Jaken-sama's dead too," Rin explained. "He jumped in front of Sesshoumaru-sama when another youkai tried to hit him. He tried to save Sesshoumaru-sama with his life."

She brushed off some dirt from his armor, leaving blood streaks in its wake that made her gasp. Frantically, her fingers straggled to wipe the blood off, only to leave more in their wake.

Kouga knelt down next to her. He spat in a hand and briskly rubbed off the red on Sesshoumaru's armor as Rin watched with wide but dull eyes.

On some level of his mind, Inuyasha wondered why Kouga was bothering. It was like he was paying some kind of homage to Sesshoumaru by attending to the blood on his armor. Homage to his brother, something Inuyasha hadn't even considered at the sight of Sesshoumaru's corpse, something Kouga considered even though he had no obligations to Sesshoumaru from a familial point of view.

If the wolf had been a worthy rival, Inuyasha would have thought that Kouga was trying to shame him, outdo him in fraternal obligations. However, in this world, Inuyasha had himself so firmly rooted in disregard towards his brother that it didn't matter to him if Kouga so much as kissed his brother's armor and built a shrine for it. But the way the girl gazed through tearless eyes at Kouga's fingers in their brisk movements began to grind on Inuyasha's nerves. Did she think him a noble hero for respecting Sesshoumaru? Was that even Kouga's intention? Not that Inuyasha cared what Kouga was doing of course. No.

"Sesshoumaru-sama always took good care of his armor," Rin remarked sullenly to the air. Her eyes followed the movements of Kouga's fingers as they brushed off some dirt. "But…"

To the surprise of both males, the little girl reached out toward Kouga, as if in preparation for a comforting touch, and swerved to swat his hand away from the armor. At the sound of the little slap, Rin's eyes wrinkled, whether it was fear of how Kouga would react or startled by her sudden movement Inuyasha was not sure, and seemed to realize that her hand was still touching Kouga's. Her small fingers curled lightly around his, picking up his hand, and neatly lifted it and placed it behind him, away from Sesshoumaru.

"...It doesn't matter how clean his armor is now," Rin informed them, looking up at Inuyasha as well, as if he needed reminding, as though he cared.

"Sorry, kid," Kouga said. "Sorry."

"Sorry…" Inuyasha echoed, not apologizing for the death of his brother, but apologetic anyway. Did it matter what he apologized for? There were plenty of things he wanted to repent, or at least take back, like today for example. "Sorry…" Inuyasha didn't think Kouga was actually apologizing to Rin either.

Rin shrugged carelessly. She eyed Kouga's face and then his tail and notched her head to the side. "You're a wolf, aren't you?" she asked suddenly.

Kouga didn't seem to care about the spontaneity of the question nor the directness of the girl. Perhaps, like Inuyasha, emotions now only came to him sparingly. "I am," he replied.

Narrowing her eyes slightly, Rin turned back to Sesshoumaru's body, fingers dragging along the tatters of his clothing. She closed her eyes and took a breath of the air reeking of blood and death.

"I don't like things that kill me, like wolves," she said gravely.

That brought Kouga up short. "What?" he spluttered in confusion.

"Sesshoumaru-sama never killed me," she continued almost conversationally. "He did the opposite actually." Opening her eyes, Rin leaned forward slightly to look at Sesshoumaru's head. Adjusting it more firmly on the stump of his neck, she remarked, "I wish I could do that, the opposite of killing. Then I could bring Sesshoumaru-sama back, just like he did for me."

By an unsurprisingly coincidence, all three of their gazes turned to the sword lying a few feet away from the corpse.

"Tenseiga," Inuyasha murmured. Somehow, it had escaped the battle in one piece. Sesshoumaru's other sword hadn't been so fortunate: it was lying in pieces somewhere in the parts of Naraku's corpse.

"Sesshoumaru-sama didn't like that sword very much," Rin commented vaguely.

Glancing out of the corner of his eye at his brother, Inuyasha wondered for a moment. The things Tenseiga could do had made him wonder, but the satisfaction of receiving the Tessaiga, the sword that could kill, from his father instead of Sesshoumaru had mattered more to him in the past, before today, before the fighting, before the wish. But now that Sesshoumaru was dead, did the laws of inheritance apply to Inuyasha? Would Sesshoumaru have allowed the Tenseiga to go to him, a hanyou? Inuyasha didn't think Sesshoumaru was prideful enough to prevent him from inheriting it, but there was still the fact that his father's swords chose the heirs, not the sword wielders, and that was where his wondering grew tense.

He wondered what Kagome would think of the idea that he, big strong Inuyasha, would inherit a sword that healed. The thought was squashed immediately.

When the moment was over, he mentally shrugged to himself and decided that it was okay to take chance, since he had nothing to lose.

He walked toward the Tenseiga and, as Kouga and Rin watched his movements numbly, picked it up. Nothing happened. It didn't surprise Inuyasha, as the Tessaiga hadn't reacted to him immediately either when he had first touched it.

Inuyasha experimentally gave it a sharp swing over the ground. Still nothing.

An inkling of frustration began to grow. Did he inherit the Tenseiga or not?

Inuyasha was about to toss the sword to the ground in a huff when his ears picked up heavy, shuffling footsteps.

"Kaede," he said in surprise as the old miko ran toward them. She had survived? Surprisingly, it relieved Inuyasha that she had lived, survived her older sister a second time no less. Inuyasha's forehead crinkled and he took in the scenery more closely, noticing that some surviving villagers had come out from hiding and had started to take away the corpses on the battlefield.

When Kaede reached them, she was almost out of breath. Inuyasha could see that she had come to them at a fast pace, but it didn't seem like she had come from such a far distance that she would tire so easily. The cold-looking sweat on her cheeks and the whirling of her eye made it obvious that something had obviously been weighing in her mind, causing her anxiety.

Inuyasha didn't blame her. Today had been awfully eventful.

"Child," Kaede gasped, putting a hand on Rin shoulder. "Child, are you well?"

Inuyasha frowned when Kaede's eye wildly glanced from Kouga to Inuyasha to the sword in his hand. He almost growled when he realized that Kaede was afraid that he or Kouga would harm Rin. What did she take him for? A monster? Someone who would send girls out of existence?

Inuyasha's mind flashed and he quickly shoved that thought away.

Rin said, with the unchanged grave, slightly cracked tone of voice, "Rin is alive." She didn't seem to notice the hand on her shoulder.

"And I am grateful for that," Kaede said, flapping her other hand. "But…" She looked at Kouga, who stared back at her with some surprise.

She sighed and shook her head.

"Child, you mustn't stay here for long. Children should never be on a battlefield. If you have nowhere to go, then come with me. You can stay with me for as long as you want," Kaede offered, urgently taking the girl's hands and tugging on them.

"I can not," Rin replied, voice firm, sticking out her chin stubbornly. "I have to stay with Sesshoumaru-sama and Jaken-sama until they've left."

"Until they… But child, they're _dead_."

Sighing, Inuyasha decided that it didn't matter if Kaede didn't trust him around Rin, even if that was a foolish notion. It wasn't as if he owed anything to Rin, but for some reason, as Sesshoumaru's brother (half-brother, but what did it matter?), Inuyasha felt as though he should at least ensure Rin's safety. He didn't feel comfortable with seeing the girl surrounded by so much darkness either.

He'd done enough killing today as it was, and it was silly to think so, but seeing to Rin seemed like more of the opposite of killing than anything else at the moment.

"Go with her," he said abruptly, voice rasping. "I will stay here with the bodies."

They, all three of them, turned around and stared at him. He didn't blame them. He'd have done the same thing in their place.

"I don't mind," he added, with some dishonesty. "I never liked him, but Sesshoumaru is still my brother." That didn't make any sense, not even to him, for what had Sesshoumaru really done anything out of their fraternal bond? But Inuyasha left it at that.

Kaede nodded at him. "As you wish. Rin, come with me. I can see you have some cuts…" And she led the little girl away, looking relieved and worried at once.

Inuyasha felt a faint throb at his palm and he drew up the Tenseiga's hilt to his face. Addressing a sword as he would a human might have looked silly, but instinctively, Inuyasha knew that the Tenseiga deserved no less.

The Tenseiga didn't exactly glow, not if he merely looked at it. But if he squinted slightly and let his eyes become unfocused just a little bit, Inuyasha caught small glimmers of light twinkling around the sword, and if he blinked, they disappeared. But Inuyasha had seen enough of the glimmer to see the blurry trail omitting from the Tenseiga, a trail meandering its way through the air and spiraling around the girl who had spent more time in the Tenseiga's company than Inuyasha ever had.

"So that's how it's going to be?" he murmured under his breath. The trail wavered sharply. Shrugging, he murmured again, "I don't need you anyway." And that seemed to be that.

Straightening, Inuyasha called out a sharp, "Oi!" Ignoring all the people who had paused, he moved quickly to Kaede and Rin, brusquely shoving the Tenseiga into her view.

"This can stay with you," he informed the girl.

For the first time, a trace of confusion plopped onto her face. Rin stared blankly at the sword in her face for a moment. "But…"

"No buts. The sword belongs to you and that's that."

"But… but it was _Sesshoumaru-sama's _sword. I don't' deserve it."

Inuyasha wanted to roll his eyes, which momentarily confused him, since it was an action he would do if things had different, like if Kagome were still here and if today had never happened, but with practiced ease, he pushed that away. "Tell that to the fucking sword. It _wants _to be with you, understand? _I _don't understand, but that doesn't matter. Just take it."

Disregarding Kaede's suddenly frantic face, Rin hesitantly reached out with both hands, cool fingertips brushing against his. Carefully, Inuyasha transferred the sword from his grip to hers, slowly so that the weight of the sword would not overwhelm the girl. When it was firmly in her hands, she propped the blade against the ground and gazed at it placidly, thumb pad smoothing over the hilt.

"Thank you," she whispered, looking back up at him. "Thank you."

Inuyasha felt that feeling again, the feeling that she wasn't really thanking _him_ exactly. Or maybe she _was _thanking him, but she was including many more people in her thanks, people more than him. Her thanks made him feel small.

He nodded curtly at her. "Take care," Inuyasha said, because it seemed like a good thing to say, and went back to his brother's corpse. Turning to look over his shoulder, the last he saw of his half-brother's little girl was of wide, sad eyes gazing after his footsteps.

Kouga was still standing there, as if he had nothing better to do. Inuyasha didn't blame him, because there really was nowhere better for Kouga to go.

He came up next to Kouga, and they both stared as the great Sesshoumaru and his vassal Jaken melted away into the air.

They stood still, silent as the villagers around them worked to dig graves and drag corpses away. Inuyasha could almost call the atmosphere between them peaceful. He didn't feel like fighting, and apparently neither did Kouga. It was as if they respected each other.

"What are you going to do now?" he asked the wolf, when the silence became too overbearing.

Kouga shrugged. "Travel, I guess," he answered. "Look for any survivors of my kind. Something." He turned suddenly to Inuyasha. "Where did Kagome go?" he demanded. "Can she come back? Will I ever see her again?"

The last question made a corner of Inuyasha's lips curl. Would Kouga ever see her again? Would he?

"Kagome is gone," he snarled, breaking their peace. "The Jewel sent her back to her own time, where she belongs." But Inuyasha was lying through his teeth, and he knew it, because Kagome belonged with him. Or at least he thought so.

"Take me to the well," Kouga demanded again. "I want to see it."

Inuyasha glared at him. "What the fuck do you know about the well?"

"She told me about it once. And it smells like her," Kouga insisted. "It won't bring her back, but I still want to see it."

Inuyasha huffed. What good would the well bring? But the desperate look on Kouga's face gave him pity. What harm would it bring?

Sullenly, they dashed to the well, stopping so close to it that their knees caps lightly touched it.

"This is it?" Kouga asked. At Inuyasha's nod, he leaned over and looked, as if searching for a shining beacon from the bottom of the well. "She's really not coming back?" he whispered.

"I already told she wasn't," Inuyasha snapped, hating to say the words, as if spitting them out would make them final and true, because he couldn't convince Kouga if he didn't believe it himself.

"I see," Kouga said sadly. His claw gripped the well edge tightly for a moment before sliding off.

"Well, see you some other time, dog turd," Kouga told him before turning his back and running off.

Perhaps the fact that Inuyasha didn't feel the usual bristle at Kouga's last insult showed how numb he was. Inuyasha stood by the well until he was sure that Kouga had completely gone. Slowly, he turned to face it and peered down into its depths.

He already knew that the well wasn't going to give him anything, no answers, no solace, no time. It wasn't going to return happiness and certainly not Kagome back to him. If Inuyasha had been a little more romantic, he would have insisted that just because the Jewel disappeared was no reason to assume that the well wouldn't bridge he and Kagome together anymore, that there was still hope for them, that the frightened look on Kagome's face as she disappeared didn't mean that she had realized what the price of winning would be.

But however irrational it was, Inuyasha still couldn't help but question if what he thought would happen if he happened to jump into well would actually happen.

Inuyasha leaned forward to stare more closely at the darkness inside the well. He saw and smelled plants, growing things, just glowing with life, and he picked up a small scent of Kagome's shampoo and food brought from her time.

Only one way to find out, he thought.

Inuyasha leaped into the air and plummeted his way into the darkness. He tried not to despair when he made a perfect landing onto the hard bottom of the well.


End file.
